Ep 29: Naween Fernando, Frances Weinberg (August 16, 2012; originally aired September 9, 2010)

Rounds: Here.


Disclaimer: While I have not seen this episode before, I did play through the blue book (episodes 1 to 50) around ten months ago when I was scheduled to be a contestant on the show.  Additionally, I did a quick flick through it a few months back to collect words for my posts about word validity.

There's a further wrinkle in this game, because I've been expecting a high-scoring one from Naween for some time.  It turned out to be today, so I was on the lookout for long words after the first round.  That may have been significant in at least one round.


This is Naween's fourth night, and once more there's no substance to the chat; Richard comments about Naween's consistent approaches to the selections, and asks if he has particular techniques.  Naween says that he aims to keep things simple, and remain calm if he can.

Tonight's challenger is Frances Weinberg, a physiotherapist and recent Mensa inductee.  She has two lifelong goals: To climb Mount Everest, and to become a quiz show champion.  Richard asks which she thinks is more likely, and she admits that -- having watched Naween the last few nights -- she might have to get her hiking shoes ready.

Frances looked a little nervous at the start -- fair enough, under the circumstances -- and doesn't really get to shine as Naween completely dominates in the letters.  She was recently interviewed on the SHTICK (about physiotherapy), and is a bit more vivacious there.


The letters lined up beautifully for Naween, and he started off with a pair of full monties that pretty much meant the game was over right then.  He found eight-letter words in the remaining letter rounds, and managed to keep up his scoring in the numbers rounds also.  Naween had the game wrapped up at the end of round five, the earliest it is possible to do so.  Frances was only able to get points in one round (a numbers round), and when Naween solved the conundrum the final scoreline was a devastating 94 to 10 in his favour.

I was a bit forewarned, thanks to knowing that Naween had a high-scoring game and recollecting some comments from finals episodes about his letters performance.  Once the first round produced a full monty I knew that eight was the minimum to look for elsewhere, which may have prompted me to risk a word I would not otherwise have done.  I was able to navigate the letters rounds safely and solve all the numbers rounds, and recovered from a conundrum slip to register an optimal game, although tainted by foreknowledge.